Bad K: Blardone wins GS, Ligety third

First-run leader Thomas Fanara of France committed a huge mistake early in the second heat Saturday Dec. 8 and left the Bad Kleinkichheim GS win for the Italians. Massimiliano Blardone, got his fourth Cup win ahead of teammate Manfred Moelgg while American Ted Ligety moved up from sixth in the first run to record his eighth career podium.
    Held on hard snow on a course named for Austrian downhill star Franz Klammer, the southern Austrian community of Bad Kleinkirchheim had been looking for their team to continue the domination shown in the last race when they swept the podium in the Beaver Creek super G, but three Austrian contenders were among the 16 first run DNF's, leaving Benjamin Raich alone in the top 10 to press for the lead. He did move up to take fourth place but made up precious little ground on World Cup overall leader Daniel Albrecht who placed fifth.

First run leader Thomas Fanara of France committed a huge mistake early in the second heat Saturday, Dec. 8 and left the Bad Kleinkichheim GS win for the Italians. Massimiliano Blardone, got his fourth Cup win ahead of teammate Manfred Moelgg while American Ted Ligety moved up from sixth in the first run to record his eighth career podium.   
    Ligety retained his overall lead in the GS standings with 190 points. He finished second at Sölden and fourth at Beaver Creek, and said he is due for a win.
    ''It's not that much fun being second, third and fourth,'' he said. ''To win would be nice for sure.''
    The 28-year-old Blardone was third after the opening leg but delivered a solid second run to complete the course in a combined time of 2 minutes, 10.75 seconds, edging Manfred Moelgg by 0.09 second.   
    ''It feels great to win here,'' Blardone said. ''The first run was not the best for me, I made several mistakes. But I was very fast in the second run and made no mistakes.''
    The win puts Blardone in third place in the discipline standings with 150 points. He is 15th overall.
    Blardone has not won a World Cup race since last year, when he beat the rest of the field in Beaver Creek on the tough Birds of Prey” course. He was aiming for a similar success this year yet he didn’t achieve a strong second run last week and came in fourth after clocking the second best time in the first leg.
    “There was no way I would miss the podium again today, so I took incredible risks during my second run,” the Italian said. “I skied so straight that I should have crashed several times yet I was pretty lucky — I guess I used all my joker cards today, none remain for the rest of the winter.”
    “I was very frustrated with my fourth place last week, especially because I didn’t ski as well as I can in training. Even today I felt there was more in me, but I just can’t totally express myself while racing. I know I can do much better, which makes me hope for more now.”
    “It was for sure a demanding race today, both runs where set in strange ways because of the lack of snow. Both were pretty narrow and really tough to handle.”
    It was Moelgg's first podium finish in GS.   
    ''I'm very happy with my result,'' he said. ''I'm in a pretty good shape.''
    Held on hard snow on a course named for Austrian downhill star Franz Klammer, the southern Austrian community of Bad Kleinkirchheim had been looking for their team to continue the domination shown in the last race when it swept the podium in the Beaver Creek super G, but three Austrian contenders were among the 16 first run DNF's, leaving Benjamin Raich alone in the top 10 to press for the lead. He did move up to take fourth place but made up precious little ground on World Cup overall leader Daniel Albrecht who placed fifth.
    Albrecht leads with 317 points, 12 ahead of 2006 overall champion Raich of Austria. Raich was fourth, 0.03 second behind Ligety.
    Bode Miller finished seventh. Canadians Francois Bourque and John Kucera posted 12th and 13th respectively with Jean-Philippe Roy in 16th.
    Mario Matt, one of the pre-race favorites, missed a gate and failed to complete the opening run. So did fellow Austrians Mario Scheiber and Reiner Schoenfelder, disappointing the home crowd in the southern Austrian resort which is hosting a World Cup men's event for the first time since 1992.
    But the easily the biggest disappointment belonged to Fanara. "I just wish I could turn back the clock," he said, lamenting a fall that dropped him from a four-tenths of a second lead to 27th.
    Sixth place finisher Kalle Palander said his first run doomed any chance at the podium. "I made a mess of everything in the first run. There's not much you can do when you're so far behind. But that will remain my worst giant slalom result this season."
    The men's World Cup continues in Bad Klenkirchheim with a slalom on Sunday.

    — Patrick Lang contributed to this story

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THE SCOOP

By Hank McKee

Equipment
Men's Giant Slalom, Bad Kleinkichheim, Austria, Dec. 8, 2007
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Blardone, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
2 Moelgg, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
3 Ligety, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
4 Raich, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
5 Albrecht, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
6 Palander, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
7 Miller, Head/Head/Tyrolia
8 Goergl, Fischer/Lange/Fischer
9 Gorza, Fischer/Lange/
10 Defago, Rossignol/Lange/Rossignol
 
Men's Giant Slalom, Bad Kleinkirchheim, Austria, Dec. 8, 2007. … It is the ninth race of the men's 41 event 2007-08 World Cup schedule. … It is the third of eight scheduled giant slaloms on the men's schedule. … It is the 21st World Cup race held at Bad Kleinkirchheim, but just the second GS. … The first was held March 17, 1982 and won by Steve Mahre. … It is the seventh men's race the site has hosted.
    It is the fourth career win for Massimiliano Blardone, all in the GS. … His last win was at Beaver Creek Dec. 2, 2006. … His first at Adelboden Jan. 11, 2005. … Although he has scored Cup points in four disciplines, 50 of his 53 career scoring results are in GS.
    Manfred Moelgg matches his career best result in second, the first coming in a night slalom at Schladming Jan. 27, 2004. … The result represents his sixth career podium, but the first in GS. … His best previous GS finish is fifth at Kranjska Gora Dec. 21, 2005.
     It is the eighth career podium for Ted Ligety, evenly split between slalom and GS. … His lone career win to date is in GS from Yongpyong, March 5, 2006. … He has been second, third and fourth in three GS's this season.
    It is the 92nd time Bode Miller has finished
seventh or better in a World Cup race. … the 29th time in GS. … It is his eighth scoring result of the season and his fourth single digit result without making a podium. … It is the second best result of the season for Francois Bourque. … It is the sixth scoring result of the season for John Kucera, four of those better placings. … It is the first scoring result of the season for Jean-Philippe Roy. … The result matches his sixth best career score.
    Thomas Fanara won the first run but dropped to the bottom of the finish order with his second run. … Daniel Albrecht, fifth in race, maintains the lead of the World Cup overall standings 317-305 over Benjamin Raich, fourth in race. Swiss Didier Cuche is third overall with 273pts. … Ligety is fifth behind the injured Aksel Lund Svindal. … Ligety maintains the lead in the GS standings 190-154 over Albrecht. … Blardone moves into third at 150 and Moelgg fourth at 142. … Ligety has GS results of second, fourth and third in the three held this season. … Winning margin is .09 of a second. … Top seven are with a second. … Top 13 within two seconds.

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Rank	Bib	FIS Code	Name	Year	Nation	Run 1	Run 2	Total Time	FIS Points
1	7	292000	BLARDONE Massimiliano	1979	ITA	1:07.87	1:02.88	2:10.75	0.00
2	11	292491	MOELGG Manfred	1982	ITA	1:07.83	1:03.01	2:10.84	0.61
3	2	534562	LIGETY Ted	1984	USA	1:08.30	1:02.62	2:10.92	1.14
4	4	50625	RAICH Benjamin	1978	AUT	1:08.03	1:02.92	2:10.95	1.35
5	12	510993	ALBRECHT Daniel	1983	SUI	1:07.90	1:03.20	2:11.10	2.36
6	5	180251	PALANDER Kalle	1977	FIN	1:09.19	1:02.45	2:11.64	5.99
7	3	532431	MILLER Bode	1977	USA	1:08.77	1:02.90	2:11.67	6.19
8	23	50600	GOERGL Stephan	1978	AUT	1:09.09	1:02.81	2:11.90	7.74
9	26	560406	GORZA Ales	1980	SLO	1:08.36	1:03.65	2:12.01	8.48
10	9	510727	DEFAGO Didier	1977	SUI	1:08.86	1:03.30	2:12.16	9.49
11	29	180534	SANDELL Marcus	1987	FIN	1:10.00	1:02.32	2:12.32	10.57
12	6	102814	BOURQUE Francois	1984	CAN	1:09.57	1:02.80	2:12.37	10.90
13	25	50743	LANZINGER Matthias	1980	AUT	1:10.04	1:02.49	2:12.53	11.98
14	15	102873	KUCERA John	1984	CAN	1:08.75	1:03.85	2:12.60	12.45
15	27	420148	KARLSEN Truls Ove	1975	NOR	1:09.80	1:02.86	2:12.66	12.86
16	55	101895	ROY Jean-Philippe	1979	CAN	1:10.05	1:02.67	2:12.72	13.26
17	1	510030	CUCHE Didier	1974	SUI	1:09.70	1:03.15	2:12.85	14.13
18	37	51007	SCHOERGHOFER Philipp	1983	AUT	1:09.77	1:03.09	2:12.86	14.20
18	21	292120	SIMONCELLI Davide	1979	ITA	1:09.53	1:03.33	2:12.86	14.20
20	38	191423	RICHARD Cyprien	1979	FRA	1:09.79	1:03.14	2:12.93	14.67
21	42	51215	BAUMANN Romed	1986	AUT	1:09.43	1:03.60	2:13.03	15.35
22	53	421483	JANSRUD Kjetil	1985	NOR	1:09.94	1:03.11	2:13.05	15.48
23	31	500656	LARSSON Markus	1979	SWE	1:09.59	1:03.56	2:13.15	16.15
24	32	501101	BYGGMARK Jens	1985	SWE	1:09.54	1:03.68	2:13.22	16.62
25	49	560425	VAJDIC Bernard	1980	SLO	1:10.10	1:03.19	2:13.29	17.10
26	30	192506	MISSILLIER Steve	1984	FRA	1:09.94	1:03.98	2:13.92	21.34
27	8	191750	FANARA Thomas	1981	FRA	1:07.44	1:19.14	2:26.58	106.54

 

Did not start 1st run : LEINO Jukka (FIN)

Did not finish 1st run : KANG Min Heuk (KOR), DIXON Robbie (CAN), MYHRE Lars Elton (NOR), COCHRAN Jimmy (USA), ZAHROBSKY Petr (CZE), BARRETT Scott (CAN), JITLOFF Tim (USA), RAINER Niklas (SWE), FREY Thomas (FRA), EISATH Florian (ITA), BURTIN Raphael (FRA), ROBERTO Alessandro (ITA), SCHOENFELDER Rainer (AUT), SCHEIBER Mario (AUT), MATT Mario (AUT)

Did not finish 2nd run : NEUREUTHER Felix (GER), REICHELT Hannes (AUT), SCHIEPPATI Alberto (ITA)

Did not qualify 1st run : GEORGIEV Stefan (BUL), HOROSHILOV Alexandr (RUS), KOSTELIC Ivica (CRO), RUOPPA Jonne (FIN), PITTSCHIELER Kurt (ITA), MYHRER Andre (SWE), GINI Marc (SUI), SIMARI BIRKNER Cristian Javier (ARG), VALENCIC Mitja (SLO), OLSSON Matts (SWE), COVILI Frederic (FRA), GUFLER Michael (ITA), ZAMANSKY Jake (USA), JANKA Carlo (SUI), DE TESSIERES Gauthier (FRA), SPENCER Dane (USA), GRANGE Jean-Baptiste (FRA), GUAY Erik (CAN), SCHLOPY Erik (USA), CHENAL Joel (FRA), FILL Peter (ITA), BERTHOD Marc (SUI), GRUBER Christoph (AUT)